Tracing the Patriots' 25 (!) WR transactions since camp began

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- In one respect, the New England Patriots should be commended for their persistence when it comes to their wide receiver personnel. They’ve made a lot of moves in 2018 to try to get it right.

Yet in another respect, the present snapshot reflects a less-than-ideal situation because most of their decisions -- not including trading Brandin Cooks after Danny Amendola signed as a free agent with the Dolphins -- haven’t panned out. Since the first week of training camp in late July, Bill Belichick & Co. have made 25 transactions at the position, with the most recent being the headline-grabbing acquisition of Josh Gordon.

“Every year there are things that you have to work through. We've had a number of things we've had to work through this year and I'm sure there will be more,” Belichick said recently when asked how frustrating it has been at the receiver position. “It's a long season, so we'll see how it goes. We have confidence in the players that we have. In some cases, there are new faces added to the competition. We'll see how it goes and go from there.”

As for how things have unfolded for them at receiver since Julian Edelman lost his appeal of a four-game NFL suspension on July 3, it’s quite the timeline:

Sept. 17: Josh Gordon is acquired in a trade (24) and Coleman is released (25).

The Patriots are buying time until Edelman returns from the four-game suspension. He will make a big difference, as the club has been relying on Chris Hogan and Phillip Dorsett as its top two receivers, with Cordarrelle Patterson the No. 3 option.